GRATERFORD  Perkiomen Valley scored twice in the opening 10 minutes Thursday night in what amounted to a playoff for a Pioneer Athletic Conference field hockey playoff berth.

After that the Vikings had a long 50 minutes to hang onto the lead against the hard-charging, three-time defending PAC-10 champion Owen J. Roberts squad. But PV did indeed maintain that early advantage the rest of the way behind the superb play of goalkeeper Audree Bonavita and strong defense for a 2-0 win, second place in the Liberty Division, and a Final Four berth.

With the win, the Vikings (7-5-1, 9-7-1)  who got goals from Annie Himsworth and Christie Balestra  tied OJR (7-5-1, 8-9-1) for second, but won the tie-breaker by virtue of a better record within the division after the two teams split their two head-to-head meetings. Perk Valley will face Frontier Division champion Upper Perkiomen on Tuesday night in the second half of a semifinal doubleheader at Upper Perk. The Wildcats  who hit the post three times and had a penalty stroke turned away by Bonavita  will wait to see if their strong schedule gets them a spot in the District 1-AAA playoffs.

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I thought we were going to score more, said Viking coach Erik Enters. Give credit to their defense. I think Audree played phenomenal and the defense cleared it out, too.

We had to keep the game in our hands, added Bonavita. I think we did a great job of controlling the game.

Himsworth ripped in a goal just 6:12 into the contest and Balestra added another off an assist by Natalie Marsh with 8:52 gone and the Vikings could have had more, but Wildcat keeper Ally Mooney came up with six saves the rest of the half.

At the same time, Bonavita came out of the goal to stop a breakaway by Molly Minahan and stopped a shot by Jordyn Shoemaker shortly after that to maintain the lead.

We lost five minutes in the first half just playing around and it cost us, said OJR coach Clarence Jennelle. Every minute after that five minutes, the intensity got more and more.

The second half was back and forth much of the time as OJR made three defensive saves on the goal line and the Wildcats just missed out on several scoring chances.

One key play came with 23:31 remaining when Schweppe was awarded a penalty stroke, but Bonavita stopped it on a dive to her right.

We did some penalty strokes as a warm-up, said the PV senior keeper, who will play at Syracuse next year. I had the mindset. I knew what I had to do.

Shortly after that Schweppe made a big defense save and then came down field and got a shot past the diving Bonavita, but that try hit off the left post.

The Wildcats hit the post again with eight minutes left, Ashley Kucera ripped one just wide left with four minutes to go, and Bonavita made another diving stop on Schweppe with a couple of minutes left to pretty much clinch the win.

We did everything but put it in the net, said Jennelle. We need to dive and knock them in the goal with us. Emma Christman played today the way she can. All she has to do is finish it. Jordyn Shoemaker had two defensive saves and Lauren Schweppe had one. And Jordyn Shoemaker just shut them down this (the right) side. We played hard.

Bonavita felt that the two early goals certainly helped, but there was still a lot of tension against the dangerous Wildcats.

It definitely takes a lot of pressure off, she said. We got the momentum going. But theres so much pressure because we knew they could come back and score.

We lost 2-0 to them the first time, but out-shot and out-cornered them, Enters added. These are two even teams.

NOTES

Perk Valley was short-handed midway through the second half after being called for a yellow card. The Vikings had an 8-3 lead in shots on goal in the first half and a 12-9 advantage for the game. OJR had six corners in the second half to one for PV and a 9-7 edge on the night. Wildcat second-half keeper Lizzy Tamburro made three saves.